


Here I Go Again

by scornedmedea



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Declarations Of Love, Deputy Stiles Stilinski, Emotionally Constipated Derek Hale, Ficlet, First Kiss, Karaoke, M/M, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-06
Updated: 2019-05-06
Packaged: 2020-02-27 07:36:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18734536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scornedmedea/pseuds/scornedmedea
Summary: Stiles's mouth dropped open. “There is no way.”He spun around on the stool, sure his mind was playing tricks on him. Sure enough, there on stage singing Whitesnake was Derek frickin Hale. And the bartender was right. He was good. Like really, really good.





	Here I Go Again

**Author's Note:**

> In case you're not familiar, the song Derek is singing is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRW7u1v_rmM

Stiles fidgeted on the barstool. He’d never been too good at sitting still, and the terrible karaoke going on behind him wasn’t helping. He flipped through the pictures on his phone until he got to the one of the boy who was murdered.

As soon as he’d found out about him, he made sure he was put on his case. Supernatural shenanigans in Beacon Hills had calmed down the last few years, but things still crept up on them. And now there was some boy who was murdered because he got caught up in something he wasn’t prepared to deal with. Stiles couldn’t shake the feeling that it could have been him. A human running with a pack of werewolves and more. He shouldn’t have lived long enough to actually become the second Deputy Stilinski. Or maybe, that’s why he did. It was his whole human thing that had saved them more times than he would ever let them forget.

“Can I get you anything?” the bartender asked?

“Umm,” Stiles shook himself out of his internal monologue. “Just a Sprite is fine.”

“Just Sprite?” she asked like she had missed part of what he was saying.

“Just Sprite since I’m technically working.” He flashed his badge.

The bartender grabbed a glass from beneath the counter and filled it with Sprite.

“You don’t happen to remember having seen this boy?” Stiles slid his phone across the bar so she could get a good look at the picture.

She leaned over his phone, studying the picture as she placed the glass in front of him. “Missing?”

“He was. Until they found a body.”

Her smile melted into a frown. “He was in here every Thursday for karaoke.” She leaned against the bar like she was suddenly very tired. “He was really nice. Tipped well. Couldn’t sing for shit, but tipped well.”

“When was the last time you remember seeing him?” Stiles asked.

“Last Thursday. I had actually just told James that it was weird that we hadn’t heard one of his drunken renditions of Adele tonight.” She wiped out a glass from the sink behind the bar.

“Any idea what time he left that night?”

“Not a clue. I’m sorry.”

“No worries!” Stiles smiled at her. “You’ve been super helpful. Thanks.”

Stiles took a big drink from his glass and gently placed it back on the bar, running his fingers around the rim. The music slowly drifted back into his awareness.

“Here I Go Again.” Stiles smiled to himself. “Solid choice.”

“Yeah, this guy always does 80’s power ballads. He’s actually pretty good.” She moved down the bar to make a drink for a balding man in a suit.

“No, I don’t know where I’m goin’.” Stiles heard being sung behind him. “But I sure know where I’ve been.”

Stiles's mouth dropped open. “There is no way.”

He spun around on the stool, sure his mind was playing tricks on him. Sure enough, there on stage singing Whitesnake was Derek frickin Hale. And the bartender was right. He was good. Like really, really good.

“Cause I know what it means,” Derek sang as he threw his head back, belting the lyrics. “To walk along the lonely street of dreams! And here I go again on my own! Goin’ down the only road I’ve ever known!”

Stiles knew his mouth was hanging open, but he was unable to close it. He sat and watched the rest of Derek’s performance with stars in his eyes. And that was the perfect word for it, he thought to himself. Derek was legitimately performing. It was like there was no one else in the whole bar. And if he was being honest, it was incredibly hot. But there was something about seeing Derek up on stage and vulnerable that was really tugging at Stiles’s heartstrings. He kind of wanted to cry and didn’t even understand why.

As the song came to an end, people actually clapped. Stiles was pretty sure that was the only time he had heard anyone clap all night. He swung back around to the bar and took a sip from his drink, trying to gather himself.

“The usual?” the bartender called over in Stiles’s direction.

Stiles turned and Derek was standing two people down from him. He leaned closer to the bar so he could see around them. “You do that so often that you have a usual?”

For a split second, Derek’s face faltered and he looked terrified. But before Stiles’s could react, he was back to looking vaguely annoyed. “Stiles.” was all he said.

“Dude, you didn’t tell me you were a damn rockstar!” Stiles got up and moved to the other side of the couple so that he was next to Derek.

“I don’t tell you a lot of things.”

“Oh my god, do you two know each other?” The bartender chuckled as she placed Derek’s drink in front of him.

“Yeah!” Stiles said excitedly like Derek was a celebrity. “He used to stalk me and my friends when we were teenagers.”

“If I’m remembering correctly, you guys all happened to show up wherever I was.” Derek took a sip of his drink. “All the time.”

“You’re not.” Stiles swirled the straw around his glass. “Remembering correctly,” he added quickly.

“Adorable.” The bartender laughed.

“Adorable is having a gaggle of teenagers wrapping themselves up in your family drama, the literal moment you get back into town after half a decade.”

“First of all, we are not geese, ergo, we are not a gaggle. Secondly, part of the group is literally related to you.” Stiles grinned as he said, “and besides, didn’t you claim Scott as your brother like five minutes into meeting him?”

“Oh my god,” Derek made a show of rolling his eyes and sighing. “If I had known you guys were going to make it weird, I would have let Peter eat you.”

“Please, you’re only alive because of us.” Stiles nudged his arm playfully.

“You’re not wrong,” Derek said quietly to himself. “Thanks,” he added turning to Stiles.

Stiles’s cheeks felt incredibly warm all of a sudden. He looked down at the bar. “You know, you’re really good at that.”

“Showing gratitude?” Derek swirled his drink in his glass and downed what was left. “Not really.”

Stiles choked on his Sprite. “Holy shit, did you just make a joke?”

Derek shrugged and smiled at him.

“I meant the singing,” Stiles said when he finished laughing. “I mean, damn near professional quality.”

Derek’s cheeks turned red and he started studying the bottles on the back wall of the bar. “Can you not,” he paused, looking for the right words. “Can you not tell anyone about this. It’s kind of my thing.”

The anxiety in his voice made Stiles’s stomach do flips. “You know,” Stiles said quietly. He was now using both hands to play with his empty glass. “It’s okay for you to be happy. I want,” he cut himself off. “We want you to be happy. You deserve to be happy.”

Derek didn’t say anything.

Stiles took a deep breath. “Don’t worry, sourwolf. Your secret is safe with me.” He chuckled at his own joke.

Derek forced a tiny smile and went back to staring at the bottles on the wall.

“Well, I have to get going. Early day tomorrow and everything.” Stiles left a ten on the bar, knocked against Derek’s shoulder with the back of his hand, and headed to the door.

A smile crept across Derek’s face as he sat there.

“You’re an idiot. You know that, right?” The bartender had returned to grab Stiles’s money.

“Huh?” Derek snapped back to reality.

“You are so far gone,” she laughed to herself.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“I literally sit here all night, every night and live vicariously through people. I know what it looks like when two people are head over heels for each other,” she deadpanned.

“Clearly your radar is a little off.” Derek cocked an eyebrow at her. “He definitely isn’t feeling anything.” He spit out, “And neither am I,” a little too fast to be believable.

“Every Thursday you come in here and you sing two or three songs. Do you know what I see?” She was leaning on her elbows on the bar.

“What?”

“People look at you with the same face I make when they bring out my food at the Olive Garden.”

“And?” Derek asked.

“That boy, he looks at you like you’re the single most fascinating person he’s ever met. I actually have cavities from being too close.”

“We’ve just known each other for a long time.”

“Can you grab that bottle off the top shelf?” she asked, gesturing behind her. “Since you’re so good at reaching.”

Derek laughed and shook his head.

“And since I know your follow up is going to be that you don’t have feelings for him, I feel compelled to point out that I have seen you smile more in the last twenty minutes than I have in the combined three months that you’ve been coming here.”

Derek’s face dropped. “I’m an idiot.”

“That was kinda my point. But you could just,” she paused and shrugged. “Stop being one.”

“Do you meddle this much in everyone’s life?” he asked.

“I’d say it’s a personality flaw, but I’m usually right and the world is a better place for it.”

“It was probably just from him drinking,” Derek said weakly. He put his face in his hands. “I need to close my tab,” he said without looking up.

She laid down a receipt for a Sprite in front of him.

“This one’s not mine. Bourbon,” he said, shaking his glass.

“Oh, you’re right.” She cocked her head to the side and said flatly, “I must have handed you your drunk friend’s receipt by accident.”

“Okay, okay. I get it. I’ll talk to him.”

She smiled as she placed another receipt down in front of him.

***

Derek stood in front of the apartment door for twenty-seven minutes before he finally knocked. He could hear Stiles’s shuffling inside and couldn’t help but smile.

Stiles opened the door slowly. “Derek, what’s wrong?” he asked through a yawn.

“You’re wearing Batman pajamas,” was all he said.

Stiles studied Derek for a minute before replying. “He fights crime, and I fight crime. It’s like method acting, only we save lives.”

Derek giggled. He stopped suddenly, eyes wide with embarrassment.

“Are you okay?” Stiles asked moving a little closer.

“Yeah,” Derek replied with a huff. “I’m just,” he cut himself off.

Stiles stood patiently, letting Derek gather himself.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you up.” Derek turned to head back to the parking lot.

Stiles grabbed Derek’s arm. “Derek, it’s three in the morning. I know you didn’t come here to talk about my choice in sleepwear. Whatever it is, you can tell me.” The look in his eyes was desperate.

Derek stared at the ground silently.

“I guess I better get back to bed then,” Stiles said. His body slumped, and he sighed.

“Wait.” Derek reached out but stopped short.

Stiles’s eyes followed Derek’s hand.

“I just—” Derek cut himself off. He took a deep breath and started again. “I’m sorry. I’ve been a real asshole to you. Since the beginning.”

Stiles shook his head and pursed his lips. “Good night, Derek.”

“What I’m trying to say is—” Derek let out a frustrated huff. “God, I am so bad at this,” he muttered, more to himself than Stiles.

“Then stop trying to filter whatever it is you want to say. Just say what you’re thinking.” Stiles leaned against the doorway. “I’m a grown man; I promise I can take whatever it is.”

Derek grabbed Stiles by the hand and pulled him up against him. Before Stiles could react, Derek’s mouth was pressed up against his.

Stiles melted completely against Derek, pushing back against his mouth.

Derek pulled away slowly. “Was that okay?” he asked quietly.

“Dude, I’ve been wishing you would do that for years.” Stiles grabbed Derek’s jacket with both hands. “I’m just mad you stopped.” He pulled Derek back into a kiss.

“Wait,” Stiles said as he leaned back. He narrowed his eyes at Derek. “Does this mean I get to come see you sing every week?”

“I would actually really like that.” Derek smiled against Stiles’s mouth as Stiles pulled him through the doorway into his apartment.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading! You can find me on Tumblr at [scornedmedea](https://scornedmedea.tumblr.com/)


End file.
